Avignon
The French king convinced the Pope he'd be much safer in France than in the warring Italy so the Catholic Church bought Avignon and moved the Papal Palace there. The popes resided in Avignon and not Rome for 100 years. Avignon is one of the only cities in the area without sizable Roman ruins and the main draw is the city walls and papal palace.
Avignon itself is an OK town if you stay off the main tourist drag (Rue de la Republique) and stay away from the Papal Palace area (Place de l'Horlage). Our apartment was nearly on one of the medieval water wheeled canal streets so it was about as ideal as it could be. And yet I don't think I'd stay in Avignon again as I wasn't that drawn to it. To it's high point was it's central market or Les Halles as you'll see in my photos below.
Avignon was fairly central to Ille sur la Sorge, Orange, Arles and Nimes but I don't think that alone is enough since Nimes is a much nicer town.
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